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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22979560">The Brave Thing</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyrene/pseuds/cyrene'>cyrene</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Family, and Other Traumatic Things [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Once Upon a Time (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Belle Does the Brave Thing, F/M, Fix-It, Wait till she discovers THERAPY is a thing y'all!, skin deep</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 10:48:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,254</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22979560</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyrene/pseuds/cyrene</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Belle does the brave thing and stays when she ought to go. That changes everything.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Family, and Other Traumatic Things [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1651243</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>54</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Brave Thing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is part of a series.</p><p>I never understood why Belle left the way she did. I mean, it made for great story, but it didn't seem much like HER, you know? So here's what I think she would have done instead.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Kiss me again, it’s working!”</p><p> </p><p>Probably the dumbest words Belle had ever said in her life. She had no idea what’s going on now, but it had started a <em>huge</em> fight in the Dark Castle. Massive. Ogre-sized. They were literally just screaming at each other now.</p><p> </p><p>“No one could ever, ever love me!” he insisted, from where he stood a safe fifteen feet away from her and her meddling mouth.</p><p> </p><p>Oh.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>OH.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>She saw it in his eyes: past the anger, there was fear, and longing. She could walk away now. Say it’s obvious when she’s not wanted, take her hurting heart, and maybe go on an adventure or two. But that wouldn’t be fair to either one of them.</p><p> </p><p>“Who told you that?” she demanded, taking a step forward. Then, when he started and took a step back with wide, fearful, inhuman eyes, she asked again, this time softer: “Who told you that, and made you believe it?”</p><p> </p><p>He fiddled with his fingers, like he was pulling wool. He only did that when he was nervous. He did that a lot around her.</p><p> </p><p>Belle took one brave step forward. “You’re a very intelligent man, Rumpelstiltskin. Don’t pretend you don’t know what just happened here.” Step. “Now, I’m sorry I tried to break the curse on you. I can see it’s important to you, though I don’t understand why.” Step. “So why don’t you tell me, and I’ll see what I can do to help?”</p><p> </p><p>She was standing in front of him now, nothing but a tiny young woman doing her best to understand. Because she thought, maybe, that’s what he needed most of all. She had been selfish, assuming what he needed was for her to save him from the curse of the Dark One. But that didn’t mean he didn’t need her to save him at all.</p><p> </p><p>“I... owe you a story,” he said, seemingly out of nowhere. “About my son.”</p><p> </p><p>She didn’t understand what that had to do with this, but that was where he wanted to start, and he seemed much calmer now, almost apologetic, so she nodded.</p><p> </p><p>“You do. We had a deal.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’ve never broken a deal,” he told her proudly, then collapsed back within himself as he added, “except for one.”</p><p> </p><p>She made tea. They sat in front of the fire, he in his chair and her in hers, and he told her a story about a boy named Baelfire and his lame, coward father. Belle took a deep breath and tried to sort out the truth that was colored by his feelings on the matter. It was hard, much harder than walking away in a huff and retaining her dignity would have been, but Belle had always believed in doing the brave thing. Bravery would follow, she was sure of it.</p><p> </p><p>“So, you’re looking for him,” she said, sipping her tea.</p><p> </p><p>“I have done nothing else for the last three hundred years,” he admitted. “Everything I have done has been to get back to him.”</p><p> </p><p>“And you need your curse to do so?”</p><p> </p><p>He nodded. “I’ve... done things,” he said slowly, “in order to set this up, so I can get to the land without magic and find Bae. I’m close, Belle, <em>so fucking close</em>, and it’ll all be over in a matter of years.”</p><p> </p><p>“What did you do?” she asked, more out of curiosity than anything. When he flinched, she amended it and said, “What kinds of things have you done to accomplish your goal?”</p><p> </p><p>He told her about training Regina, how he had manipulated her towards the darker forms of magic. The deals he had made, what he got out of them. He didn’t hold back, but he didn’t look her in the eye, either. Probably afraid of watching her love for him turn to revulsion, and she could understand that. He had, after all, done plenty of bad things, and he was not called the Light and Fluffy One, despite his floofy hair.</p><p> </p><p>He told her about the curse Regina would cast.</p><p> </p><p>“Let me get this straight,” Belle said, setting her third cup of tea down. “Regina is going to cast a curse which will transport everyone in the Enchanted Kingdom to the Land Without Magic. We’ll all live there, tortured under a curse, for twenty-eight years, until the child of True Love comes to free us?”</p><p> </p><p>“Essentially,” he shrugged, looking at her fiercely to cover his shame.</p><p> </p><p>“And this will lead you back to your son?” she asked.</p><p> </p><p>He nodded. “I have seen it.”</p><p> </p><p>“All right,” Belle said, picking up her tea again and taking a sip. “So what to we have to do to make sure it happens, while still protecting your heart from a darkness that wants to swallow you whole?”</p><p> </p><p>He looked at her, startled and wide-eyed. “We?”</p><p> </p><p>Belle rolled her eyes. “It’s been three hundred years, Rumple. Time to get someone else on board and see if we can’t move this thing along. I’m not going to try to break your curse until you find your son, but I <em>would</em> like to kiss you again someday.”</p><p> </p><p>“You… <em>what</em>?!”</p><p> </p><p>Belle smiled at him. “Keep up, ‘dearie,’” she joked, snapping her fingers. “I’m in love with you. And it’s True Love, the kind they only write about. So I’m going to stay, thank you very much. And I will help you find Baelfire. And then we’ll break this curse once and for all, and live happily ever after.”</p><p> </p><p>“I... don’t think it works like that, dearest,” he said, with a puzzled frown on his face.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s our love,” she pointed out. “It works whatever way we want it to. So, I assume the first rule is no kissing on the mouth,” she said with no little sorrow. “But do you know of any legends regarding True Love’s roll in the hay?”</p><p> </p><p>He spit his tea out in surprise. “<em>What</em>?!”</p><p> </p><p>“It’s all right, I’ll get right on that,” she reassured him.</p><p> </p><p>“You’re very forward for a maid.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m done playing around, is what I am,” she replied tartly. “Regina used me to get to you. I don’t like that. It’s not happening again, not if I can help it. So the first step is to be honest with you about what I’m feeling. If that’s forward, well,” she shrugged, “so be it.”</p><p> </p><p>“I swore I would never love again, not until I found my son,” he said carefully.</p><p> </p><p>“And I swore I would never shut myself up in someone’s ‘rather large estate’ and be a helpmeet for the rest of my life. But it’s happening. I think we can find a compromise.”</p><p> </p><p>He narrowed his eyes at her. “You’re a little scary, sometimes. When you get an idea in your head.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m halfway to thirty and still not married. You didn’t think it was just the books, did you?”</p><p> </p><p>He laughed, then, his <em>real</em> laugh, not the tittering of the Dark One, and it brought a smile to her face.</p><p> </p><p>“Can we really do this?” he asked, hopeful and small and scared.</p><p> </p><p>“It will be hard work, and you won’t always like me very much, and I won’t always like you very much, but I know we can make it through.”</p><p> </p><p>And, the thing was, she really believed it. She hadn’t, two hours ago while they were still shouting and she was contemplating walking away. Then, it had seemed impossible. But now... she just had to look over at him, and his silly little grin, to know that anything was possible.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
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